Friday, June 19, 2009

This year's non-absurd story

Ok, this one's a bit old but it has been sitting here as a draft for so long I'd forgotten about it. In any case, if you can get to the end of this story and still have a dry eye you have no heart. Let me know and I'll shed a tear for you.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show

In short, a 10-year-old girl was dying of cancer and, basically, was holding on until she could see the movie "Up". Unfortunately by the time it hit the theaters she was too ill to make the trip so after a series of phone calls, Pixar sent someone to her house the next day with a DVD of the movie (which was only in theaters at that point) and a bunch of stuffed animals from it. She was in so much pain she couldn't even open her eyes so her Mom gave her a play-by-play, which she enjoyed.

The poor girl died 7 hours later.

It's rare that a big company like Disney/Pixar does something this right, but even in the darkest story there's a small ray of light. Some people aren't so bad after all.

79 is the new 19.

According to The Tampa Bay Tribune a 79 year-old grandmother was arrested for possession of crack cocaine this week. In a search of her house not only did they find enough crack that she's charged with intent to distribute but a wealth of shotgun shells. In case granny had to pop a cap in someone's ass for walking on her lawn?

But don't worry, she knows the drill. This was her 13th arrest.

What ever happened to grandmothers just having a dish of candy?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The flies have it

I've tried to be snarky but there really is nothing I can add to this story to make it even more absurd so I'll just summarize.

During an interview on Tuesday, June 16th President Obama swatted a fly that had been buzzing around him, killing it. We've all done it. We'll all continue to do it, though not all of us have the fly killing prowess of our chief executive who did it with one smack. Say what you will the man has lightning reflexes.

The next day PETA put up a post on their blog implying that were we to think before acting we wouldn't kill flies and suggesting that if you want to be a "bigger person" (Than President Obama? Than a fly? Than PETA?) you shouldn't kill flies but use their non-lethal bug catcher.

I'm an animal lover: I've grown up with cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils and whatever else I felt like bringing home to gross out my mother. But, once again, PETA goes way over the edge. What next? Bacteria bashes to promote the welfare of our single-celled brethren?

I thought it was a joke at first but looking at the other recent entries on their blog it sure doesn't look that way. And their follow-up post confirmed that it far from tongue-in-cheek.

Calling this absurd is an insult to absurdity. This is positively ludicrous.

I wonder if rampantinsanity.blogspot.com is taken....